Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CHALLENGE TO TIME, by FLORENCE RALSTON WERUM


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CHALLENGE TO TIME, by                    
First Line: I dream alone, in contemplation here
Last Line: He wastes his breath who stars his path by time.
Subject(s): Time


I dream alone, in contemplation here,
On proof, I say, all years are passing strange.
I could not fathom waters black -- or clear
Or bracken kiss of Circe, Death's cold change
Or folly, learned savants' probing knife
Which seeks to find beneath the basic cause
And probing, comes at length to see, in life
No strophe, accent, metaphor or pause,
Only unpatterned beat of Joy and Pain.
As I, unskilled, have scanned this pattern, questing
For rigid rhythm, line by line, in vain,
This I have heard above the doggerel jesting
And over all in undertones sublime --
He wastes his breath who stars his path by Time.





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